A bronze sculpture of Lucille Ball is displayed in Lucille Ball Memorial Park in the village of Celoron in a 2012 photo.
Photograph: Uncredited/AP

A new statue of Lucille Ball was unveiled in the late actor’s hometown on Saturday which would have been her 105th birthday, replacing one that was so disliked it came to be known as “Scary Lucy”.

Hundreds of fans chanting “Lucy! Lucy!” gathered in Lucille Ball Memorial Park in the western New York village of Celoron to watch as the tarp was removed from the statue made by sculptor Carolyn Palmer.

Palmer spent nine months working on the project, watching countless episodes of I Love Lucy and hiring models to pose in 1950s-style dresses.

“I not only wanted to portray the playful, animated and spontaneous Lucy, but also the glamorous Hollywood icon,” she said in a statement.

The earlier statue’s creator, Dave Poulin, has said that he received death threats over the likeness. He apologized, calling his sculpture “unsettling,” but his offer to redo it for free was declined. The statue was removed after detractors started a Facebook campaign named, “We Love Lucy! Get Rid of this Statue.”

“Well, it’s been quite a ride,” Celeroon Mayor Schrecengost said as he kicked off the unveiling ceremony. “A little over a year ago, we got beat up pretty good.”

Schrecengost said that after the controversy over the earlier statue the town was “bombarded with all kinds of artists that would like to redo the statue”. He said Palmer was “the best sculptor we could have ended up with”.

Palmer thanked the “salt-of-the-earth” people of Celeron.

Palmer has sculpted a number of other famous figures – her marble statue of Pope Francis stands at the papal residence in New York City, where the pope blessed it during his visit last year. A bronze version of that statue is being produced for St Patrick’s Cathedral in New York.

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The crowd applauded as Palmer and Schrecengost unveiled the bronze statue, which shows Ball in a polka-dot dress.

Schrecengost said “Scary Lucy” remains an attraction and will be given another spot in the park.

The new statue was unveiled on what would have been Ball’s 95th birthday. The beloved star’s birthday is celebrated every year with the Lucille Ball Comedy Festival in nearby Jamestown.